Zombies Vs. Robots! (2004)

Kill Normal

The Eastern seaboard suddenly has this slowly spreading, unexplainable obsession with incorporating hardcore influences into ska or vice versa. While the description on paper is probably wretch-worthy, there are plenty of bands who actually make it work at least somewhat well, such as Boston's Big D And The Kids Table, Jersey's Folly, and Long Island's ASOB (their older material, anyway). For anyone into the abovementioned bands, you may as well throw the Flaming Tsunamis on the list and into your rotation. Zombies Vs. Robots! is either the best parody of the symbols of an online "scene" or a stunningly well thought-out joke album. Whether it's both or none, the band's EP may not be the most musically cohesive piece of work ever, but lyrically, they stay right on the record's theme. Simply taking a gander at the track listing would give you that impression, with song names like "Dead Girlfriends Can't Break Up With You," "Refuse To Die," and a title track.

Also like most of the above, ska-punk may be primary with the core secondary, but the band mixes in other genres as well. The title track is an acoustic sea-chanty detailing the inspired battle of, well, zombies and robots; "the robots are coming our way / we attack in a pack with razor sharp teeth / and we bite and we hack but they don't taste like beef / oil thirsty zombies won't taste defeat / because we're forever at war."
The closer "Opus" is a great fast-paced number drawing from Big D's faster tracks at first, slowing down for sloppy gang vocals, speeding up again, and then intervened by an exchange of upstroke-enforced horn solos and organ skittering, the last of which could've came right from Destruction By Definition, only to break down in an aggrandized fashion with group vocal shouts and wailing brass.

Zombies Vs. Robots! is a fun if not completely misdirectional release that keeps in mood with contemporary ska-punk mindsets, and will likely be dug by anyone who has a rough idea of what's to come despite the diverse scope of influence used.